UNC vs Wake in round two for the season

Joel Stadium

Once again the Tar Heels will have a tough opponent this afternoon, and even worst, it will be on the road, a place where head coach Roy Williams’ club just has not been able to do much of anything this year. At 2:00 p.m. EST North Carolina (14-14 & 3-10 in the ACC) against Wake Forest (18-7 & 8-5 in the ACC) at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and if UNC does not get it together it might be even worst than the 82 to 69 loss they suffered to the Demon Deacons in Chapel Hill. If we look back at the last game the Heels played, a 10 point loss to FSU, there were moments where it seemed that the team “got it” and then there were moments where they were so mechanical that they seemed two different teams depending on when you watched. And all of this could be even more compounded if Will Graves can not play today. But anything can happen, especially if you look at the fact that Wake Forest is on a two game slid, having lost to both Va Tech and N.C. State, while avoiding the fact that they are a perfect 6-0 at home in conference play.

In other words this is going to be one of those games that if all the Heels do not play at their best could turn ugly real quick on them. It seems that coach Williams still believes in this ever shrinking nucleous of players:

“I have confidence in our team,” Williams said. “At times we do some nice things. At times we screw up everything. We can play well at times. What we have to do is get more consistency with that.”

The problem is that this squad, for so many reasons, hasn’t shown they can be consistent and that leads me to believe that once again they are going to find themselves giving up runs to a team that has a point guard that reminds me of Ty Lawson for the speed, Ish Smith, and that alone could make this a tough game for UNC. Wake has played well in the paint, and in the meantime UNC has lost more and more players from the front court, making that a mismatch as well, with Deon Thompson being the only player that has been in the middle for the whole season, while Tyler Zeller (inquiry) and John Henson (switched up due to injuries) are still getting back into the groove. All of this leads me to say the same thing I said to @tpetree (senior guard Terrence Petree), play for the pride of the name on the front of the jersey!

I guess what I am trying to say is that the W/L for this year do not matter much any more, what does is pride on the court that turns into progress for these young men. It needs a lot of it today, not to win, but just to stay close with a team that will have plenty of upperclassmen coming on the court to play one last time against the Heels, against the team that has been the mark of excellence in the ACC. We shall see what happens, but I have to say that having seen that Wake Forest is a 7.5 points favorite shocked me. I think that it’s going to take close to a miracle for UNC to keep this one from going into the double digits, with Wake winning 83 to 71.

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